April shook her head. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Robert. I'm completely in the dark as to what you've been doing. Neither Garth nor Dr. Greene wanted to tell me what's happened to you until you wanted to talk about it." She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. "But you don't have to tell me anything if you're not ready."
"It's not a problem," I said, and proceeded to fill April in on everything that had happened up to that point. It had all begun with my being hired to investigate the strange behavior of a Nobel laureate, and ended with my escape from one of his oversize fish tanks.
"A Nobel Prize winner?" April interjected.
I nodded. "It seems winning a Nobel Prize is no guarantee that you're a good guy. Smathers and Kee were almost certainly real members of the coven. Peth is another member. These nice folks have been exploiting famous, wealthy and influential people. There's no telling how many men and women they have under their control, offering them God knows what."
"They've been offered secret power," April said evenly. "They've been fooled into believing that they can control anything and anyone they want, through witchcraft."
"That's incredible. How can they be so damn stupid?"
April looked at me for a long time, her eyes reflecting curiosity and, perhaps, a touch of impatience. "Robert," she said at last, "sometimes you can seem incredibly dense. Don't you see, even now, that it works? Those people you're talking about are being totally controlled. They just don't realize it-which is how most control works anyway. You've already proved that the coven has been able to corrupt, manipulate and destroy people, and then you say that you doubt your own proof; you still doubt the existence of the force they're able to bring to bear on the deep mind."
She sighed and cocked an eyebrow. When I didn't say anything, she continued: "You see, the white magician cultivates love because he or she knows that love is ultimately a more powerful force. The black magician stalks and wields evil because it offers quick results. Love offers freedom; evil offers slavery. You think the choice is simple, but it's not. Most people unconsciously prefer to be slaves to their secret desires, rather than control and define their lives through love."
I smiled thinly. "The bad guys weren't quite so subtle with me."
"What did they do to you, Robert?" April asked quietly.
"Sensory deprivation," I replied, surprised at how easy it had become to talk about it. "They put me in total isolation in what's known as a hydrohypodynamic environment. They made a slight mistake by placing me in a situation that I could-and eventually did-associate with Smathers, but they obviously didn't care; they figured they'd have me there as long as it took to break me." I paused and carefully folded my napkin, placed it on the table in front of me. "You were right about pride. I remembered what you'd told me about the deep mind, and coming back by myself became a challenge for me." I smiled. "If the truth be known, I much prefer your method."
"They killed Daniel," April said softly. "Why do you suppose they didn't simply kill you?"
"I'll give you a guess-but I think it's a good one. No matter what Daniel found out-and I'm convinced he know a lot to begin with, and found out even more-he didn't talk to anyone outside his own belief system. His contacts were very strictly limited, so the coven could afford to kill him. With me, they had a different problem. They knew I'd smoked out Sandor Peth, and they knew I was in constant touch with the police, through Garth. What they couldn't be sure of was just how much I really knew, or whom I'd told. They wanted to find out, then use me-if they could-to cover their tracks. And if they wiped me out in a bizarre fashion to make it a kind of rite, so much the better."
"But you got away," April said intently.
"Sure did," I said with a grin. "Poof! Disappeared right into thin air; flew out on a broomstick I found in the janitor's closet."
She didn't laugh. "How did you get away, Robert?"
"I was cut loose," I replied seriously. "They had me bound with leather straps around my wrists and ankles. Somebody sliced through them, but I was either asleep or too zonked-out to realize what was happening at the time."
"But who would …" April paused, and I could see that she knew the answer. "Esobus," she whispered.
"Right. Esobus again. It had to be. Who else but a member of the coven would know where I was, and what was being done to me? It looks as though Esobus is turning out to be my guardian angel as well as Kathy's. Kee tried to tell me that he was Esobus, but that's nonsense. He was trying to get me to identify with Esobus and the coven; since it was his voice I was listening to, he played Great Pumpkin."
"It all seems so. . strange."
"I assume that's meant to be an understatement."
"But why would Esobus. .?" April's voice trailed off into puzzled silence.
"I'll find the answer to that question when I find Esobus."
"Oh, Robert," April sighed, "you're not going on with this, are you?"
"Of course I am; I still have a client."
"Kathy is not your client," April said with real exasperation. "She's too young to hire you! She's a minor, and I forbid you to look on her as your client!"
"She's not too young to give me everything she had in order to help someone she loved. She hired me to find her father's book of shadows, and I don't want her to be disappointed. Besides, needless to say, I'm curious about that book, and about Esobus. I can't back off now."
"But if you're right about Frank's book of shadows being an expose of the coven, it must have been stolen and destroyed by them."
"Probably. I want to find out for sure; and I want to find out who Esobus is."
"But you're ill, Robert!"
"I'll be all right. I'm going to nail these bastards."
"The police will take care of it now."
"I know; it's probably only a matter of time. I just want a piece of the action."
April slowly shook her head, whispered, "You're crazy."
"No. Just slightly put out."
"I'm afraid they'll kill you, Robert," April breathed. "After all you've done for us, after all you. . mean to me. . I don't think I could bear losing you."
"Hey, it's their side that's losing. I've got momentum, and I absolutely guarantee you they can't kill me. Your spell has cloaked me with invincibility for at least a hundred years."
"Words!" April said with sudden anger. "Words, and stupid pride! Death can come in an instant! You'll be killed, and all that will be left will be your stupid words! I don't wanf to have to remember you as a wonderful, stupid man!"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, April," I replied quietly. "I just have to follow this thing through to its conclusion. If you can't understand, there's no way I can explain."
April sighed again. "Kathy's recovering beautifully, but I'm exhausted-and you're exhausted. I was hoping that in a few days we could all. . go off somewhere together. Kathy would like that so much." She winked, and growled playfully. "So would I, lover. Want to think about it?"
"Think about it? My God, I want to go now!" I reached across the table and took her hand. "But I can't just leave this thing hanging."
"I can see that," April said, looking at me hard. "I was just hoping."